Authorities are
not really sure why BTK decided to strike up a conversation
again. Most had thought he was either dead or in
prison. It has been widely believed that serial killers are
incapable of stopping their rampage and that only death or
imprisonment will deter them.

Evidence Clue

Police have done
DNA typing on the semen found at several of the crime
scenes. Police determined that the semen is a rare type
found in less than 6% of males.

Dennis L. Rader

Rader was born on
March 9, 1945, one of four brothers. He grew up in Wichita
and graduated from Riverview School. He attended Wichita
State University where he eventually graduated with a degree in
Administration of Justice. He served a 4-year stint in the
Air Force where he worked as either a mechanic or a telephone and
antenna maintenance specialist (see reader note below).

Dennis Rader had lived in the Park City community for over 30
years. Neighbors and friends described him as caring and
considerate. Rader, a Cub Scout leader at the Lutheran
Church, was known to help elderly people with their yard work and
always played active roles in his church (including President).

Others however, described Rader as "strange".
One ex-member of his Cub Scout pack described how their mother had
pulled them out of the pack specifically because of Rader.
"It was his demeanor. He was so strange."

Neighbors of Rader, who studied Criminal Justice at Wichita
State University, also recounted stories of how Rader had harassed
neighbors about city code violations, even going so far as to
measure a neighbor's grass with a tape measure to determine if it
had been allowed to grow too high.

Other neighbors told how Rader had "unnerved"
them. He had been caught secretly filming one neighbors home
when the wife was alone while the husband was out of town.

The capture of
Rader may have been due to a single sloppy mistake. One of
the communications from the BTK Killer came in the form of a
package sent to the Fox affiliate - KSAS TV in Wichita. This
package contained a computer diskette that had been erased and
reloaded by the BTK killer with clues and taunts for the police.

Many people are unaware that erasing content on any electronic
media will still leave behind traces of the original
content. Only by utilizing mechanical electronic purging
devices or specially designed software, can the contents be
entirely removed. In this case, police were able to peel
back layers of the diskette to discover original content that was
traced back to Rader's Lutheran church.

It is presumed that once the diskette was traced to the church,
police began obtaining DNA evidence of the church members and/or
family members (either voluntarily or using discrete means), and
comparing that DNA to the DNA collected from the crime scenes and
recent communications.

Dennis Rader's Military Stint

The following was
sent to us from Jerry Tremmel, who served in the Air Force with
Dennis Rader:

Dennis was not a mechanic in the Air Force. I was stationed
in the Air Force with Dennis Rader. We went to Tech school at
Sheppard AFB, TX from October 1966 to February 1967. Dennis and I
were both transferred to the 2863RD GEEIA SQ, Brookley AFB,
Alabama. We went on a four month temporary assignment together in
1967 to Greece and Turkey. I believe Dennis went to Kadena AFB,
Okinawa for an 18 month tour in 1968. We were both trained as
Telephone Outside Plant and Antenna Maintenance specialists.

I may also have known his first victim - Joseph Otero, Joseph and
I were both apparently stationed at Albrook AFB, Panama during the
same period - 1968 - 1972. He was a pilot and I was also a member
of the Aero Club at Albrook AFB.